Nuclear Terrorism: 296,000 Radioactive Shots Per SECOND (Bq) per Liter of Water (34 oz) Near Entergy’s Indian Pt. Nuclear Power Station; Compare to M134 Gun at 100 Rounds Per Second

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bathing, Becquerels, cell disruptions, developmental effects, Entergy, environment, genetic damage, Governor Cuomo, gun safety, guns, half-life, health effects, heritable genetic effects, HTO, Indian Point, Lawrence Berkeley Nuclear Lab, Los Alamos, major hazards, mutations, New York, nuclear effluents, nuclear energy, nuclear power, Nuclear Terrorism, nuclear waste, OBT, organically bound tritium, pregnancy, radiation safety, radioactive waste, radioactive water, reproductive effects, skin absorption, swimming, terrorism, tritiated water, tritium, Tritium leaks, washing, water vapor

296,000 Radioactive Shots Per SECOND (Bequerels) per Liter of Water (34 oz) in groundwater test wells for Entergy’s Indian Pt. Nuclear Power Station. Compare to a M134 MiniGun at 100 Rounds Per Second.

The idea of a gunshot analogy is not our invention, but rather from Los Alamos Nuclear Lab, Number 23 1995, Los Alamos Science, where they compare radiation damage types to rifles, shotguns, etc.

How long would an individual get by with shooting a gun of any sort at people in public? And, yet the nuclear industry-utilities get by with it all of the time. They are allowed by law to legally leak long-lived lethal radioactive materials into the environment on a routine basis throughout the entire nuclear fuel chain. Being a New Orleans based company, Entergy’s just apparently decided to add radioactive lagniappe (a little something extra).

Water (H2O) and Carbon are the foundations of life itself. Nuclear Power makes the very foundations of life radioactive (tritium, tritiated water, C-14). Having to be fearful because the water one drinks and food one eats may be lethal to oneself or one’s loved ones is the worst terrorism of all. You can opt out of going to public events. You can’t opt out of eating and drinking.

“Typical cyclic rates of fire are 600–900 RPM for assault rifles, 1,000-1,100 RPM in some cases, 900-1,200 RPM for submachine guns and machine pistols, and 600-1,200 RPM for machine guns. M134 Miniguns mounted on attack helicopters and other combat vehicles can achieve rates of fire of over 100 rounds per second (6,000 RPM).“. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rate_of_fire

“Yesterday I learned that radioactive tritium-contaminated water leaked into the groundwater at the Indian Point Nuclear facility.  The company reported alarming levels of radioactivity at three monitoring wells, with one well’s radioactivity increasing nearly 65,000 percent. The facility reports that the contamination has not migrated off site and as such does not pose an immediate threat to public health…. The levels of radioactivity reported this week are significantly higher than in past incidents.  Three of forty monitoring wells registered alarming increases.  In fact, one of the monitoring well increased nearly 65,000 percent from 12,300 picocuries per liter to over 8,000,000 picocuries per liter.” (New York Governor Cuomo, Saturday, 6 Feb. 2016 – See Press Release at Bottom)

8,000,000 picocuries is 296,000 Becquerels (i.e Radioactive disintegrations (shots) per second). It’s impossible to even imagine this 296,000 radioactive shots to your cells per SECOND. Any improperly repaired damage may lead to cancer or inheritable damage. However, unlike with a gun, it may take decades or even generations for the damage to be known.

According to Los Alamos Nuclear Lab, severe genetic damage, more likely induced by ionizing radiation, may be especially hard to repair, and hence particularly dangerous: “Although single-strand breaks, abasic sites, and base alterations are induced by both ionizing radiation and normal metabolic processes, one particularly dangerous type of DNA lesion, the double-strand break, is induced preferentially by ionizing radiation“. (Number 23 1995 Los Alamos Science, p. 77)

A liter is around 2 average cola or water bottles, i.e. 33.8 US fluid ounces. People are supposed to drink at least a liter and a half of water per day. Tritium in the form of water stays in the body for around 160 days and if it is organically bound for around 2 years, continuing to damage the body. It stays in the environment for almost 200 years where it cycles through living beings.. Half-life means half of the amount is left. Then another half life is half of that so that it takes 14 to 16 half-lives to get close to none.

According to Lawrence Berkeley US National [Nuclear] Lab:
“When tritiated water enters the body it acts just like normal water, spreading throughout the body and delivering a uniform radiation dose to all soft tissues. Using the modeling techniques discussed in Chapter 4, we determined that it takes about 10 days for HALF the intake or uptake of tritiated water to be discharged out of the body. This period is called the biological half life. For tritium that is ingested as OBT” [Organically Bound Tritium] “(e.g., from garden vegetables grown by residents of Zone 2), the biological HALF-LIFE is on the order of 48 days….
Tritium is found in the environment in three principal forms
molecular tritium (T2 or HT), tritiated water (HTO, as opposed to H2O), and organically bound tritium (OBT) in which it is chemically bonded to organic molecules. Tritiated water is the most abundant chemical form of tritium in the environment…
2.2.2 Health Effects of Tritium
“… These experiments show that exposure to tritiated water results in mutations and cell disruptions that can lead to the health effects possible for ionizing radiation cancer, heritable genetic effects, and reproductive and developmental effects.

These health risks are associated with exposures to tritium through inhalation, ingestion of HTO” [Tritiated Water] “or OBT” [Organically Bound Tritium] “, or absorption of HTO through the skin. The health effects of ionizing radiation are proportional to the energy carried by the radiation and delivered to living cells.
… The following exposure pathways were considered:
Tritiated water vapor entering the body through respiration
Tritium ingested with water during swimming or wading, home-grown foods, or breast-milk (in the case of infants) and absorbed into the body through the gastro-intestinal tract
Tritium from tritiated water vapor in air taken through the skin
Tritium from tritiated water in surface water taken through the skin during activities that involve dermal contact with the contaminated water, i.e., washing, swimming, and wading in surface water
Tritium transferred from the body water of pregnant women to the developing fetus”
http://www2.lbl.gov/ehs/esg/tritium/tritium/TritCh2.html (Emphasis Added)

Press Release from New York Governor Cuomo’s Office:
“FEBRUARY 6, 2016
Statement from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo Regarding Indian Point Nuclear Facility

Yesterday I learned that radioactive tritium-contaminated water leaked into the groundwater at the Indian Point Nuclear facility.  The company reported alarming levels of radioactivity at three monitoring wells, with one well’s radioactivity increasing nearly 65,000 percent. The facility reports that the contamination has not migrated off site and as such does not pose an immediate threat to public health.

“Our first concern is for the health and safety of the residents close to the facility and ensuring the groundwater leak ‎does not pose a threat.

“This latest failure at Indian Point is unacceptable and I have directed Department of Environmental Conservation Acting Commissioner Basil Seggos and Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to fully investigate this incident and employ all available measures, including working with Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to determine the extent of the release, its likely duration, cause and potential impacts to the environment and public health.”

The Governor’s letter directing Acting Commissioner Seggos and Commissioner Zucker to their begin investigation can be viewed … below:

Dear Commissioners Zucker and Seggos:

I am deeply concerned to have learned that radioactive tritium-contaminated water has recently leaked from operations at the Entergy Indian Point Energy Center (Indian Point) into groundwater at the site.  This is not the first such release of radioactive water at Indian Point, nor is this the first time that Indian Point has experienced significant failure in its operation and maintenance. This failure continues to demonstrate that Indian Point cannot continue to operate in a manner that is protective of public health and the environment.

The levels of radioactivity reported this week are significantly higher than in past incidents.  Three of forty monitoring wells registered alarming increases.  In fact, one of the monitoring well increased nearly 65,000 percent from 12,300 picocuries per liter to over 8,000,000 picocuries per liter.

Our first concern is for the health and safety of the residents close to the facility and ensuring the groundwater leak does not pose a threat. As such, I am directing you to fully investigate this incident and employ all available measures, including working with Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to determine the extent of the release, its likely duration, its causes, its potential impacts to the environment and public health, and how the release can be contained.  We need to identify whether this incident could have been avoided by exercising reasonable care.  We also need to know how a recurrence of this episode can be avoided by specific steps that Entergy should be taking.

Please report back at the completion of the investigation.
 
                                                                        Sincerely,
                                                                   
                                                                        ANDREW M. CUOMO”
Original found here: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/statement-governor-andrew-m-cuomo-regarding-indian-point-nuclear-facility

Thanks to FC for the Alert: https://flyingcuttlefish.wordpress.com/2016/02/07/indian-pt-3/

HALF LIFE CHART showing how much left per half life. Some people use 10 as a rule of thumb but it depends on how close to none you wish to get. There is no safe dose of ionizing radiation. Increased dose is increased risk.